Wii sales leap as Xmas factor kicks in

Wii hardware sales jumped 60 per cent last week – as the black version of the console helped stimulate fresh interest in time for Christmas.

The Black Wii, which launched a fortnight ago on Friday, November 6th, helped the console become the best performing home system of the week, according to Nintendo.

And preferred distributor Nindie.com – owned by Koch Media – has told MCV that it has been working “round the clock” to deal with increased demand.

“Of course it would be wrong to attribute all of this to Black Wii as we’re all starting to see a natural peak season uplift on all hardware,” said senior Nintendo product manager Rob Lowe.

“But we have been really pleased with Wii’s performance over the last couple of weeks and the new Black Wii has certainly contributed to that. In fact Black hardware sales have doubled week-on-week.”

Nintendo is hoping to avoid any stock troubles as demand increases. Lowe added: “We’re bringing in a decent supply of stock and hopefully retail will find it in plentiful supply this Christmas – although consumer reaction to the new colour might suddenly change that position. It is a limited edition version of the console so currently we only have plans for it to be available in 2009.”

Koch Media boss Craig McNicol added: “We are working around the clock this Q4, opening each weekend to take in deliveries to support yet another strong Nintendo Christmas. Nindie.com continues to be the only place to offer a fair allocation of stock to the independent channel.

"We allocate our stock based on the market share that our customers have built up with Nindie on first party Nintendo purchases in the past quarter. Loyalty gets paid back with fairness.”

MCV is the leading trade news and community site for all professionals working within the UK and international video games market. It reaches everyone from store manager to CEO, covering the entire industry. MCV is published by NewBay Media, which specialises in entertainment, leisure and technology markets.